State Orders Monitor for New York City’s Child Welfare Agency

The state has ordered New York City to install an independent monitor to review the city’s troubled child welfare agency, the latest fallout from the recent deaths of children who had been the subjects of abuse reports to the agency.

In his remarks to reporters on Tuesday, the mayor did not indicate that the city had been compelled to hire a monitor. But a report about one of the child deaths, released late Monday by the state Office of Children and Family Services, made clear that the independent monitor was not a voluntary step by the de Blasio administration. Early Tuesday night, the city released its own report on the death.

Taken together, the state and city reviews provided the most detailed public findings about the death of Zymere Perkins, a 6-year-old who was fatally beaten in September and whose case echoed other infamous child abuse deaths in the city, like Elisa Izquierdo in 1995 and Nixzmary Brown in 2006.

In tearful testimony to the City Council in October, Ms. Carrión said she took responsibility for Zymere’s death. The boy’s mother, Geraldine Perkins, and her boyfriend, Rysheim Smith, have been charged with endangering the welfare of a child, and several agency workers had been disciplined because of suspected lapses in how the agency investigated reports that Zymere was being abused.

The agency came under more scrutiny in recent days after the death of Jaden Jordan, 3, who had been brought to a hospital on Nov. 28 with grave injuries. A suspicion of abuse had been relayed to the agency two days earlier, but social workers sent to look for the boy and his family were unable to locate him, apparently because of an incorrect address. He died on Dec. 3.

With the two deaths, the agency has faced pointed criticism, even from some who understand the challenges of its mission.

On Tuesday, Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, accepted blame and said the child welfare agency had failed Zymere. “Procedures were not followed, common sense was not exercised, and due diligence was lacking up and down the chain of command responsible for Zymere,” he said. “I will not accept excuses for this failure and I will not accept the notion that every single one of these tragedies cannot be prevented. The buck stops with me.”

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Zymere Perkins, a 6-year-old who was fatally beaten in September.

The city is seeking to fire three employees, has demoted four others and has initiated suspensions for two other staff members.

The state and the city reviews found that in Zymere’s case, social workers in the field failed to adequately investigate allegations of abuse and neglect and supervisors failed to scrutinize those reports. The reviews catalog a series of missed chances by investigators: They did not talk to doctors who had contact with the family, they did not contact or even locate relatives who could have shed light on the family, and they did not investigate signs of domestic abuse.

According the state report issued on Tuesday, the “ACS documentation was convoluted with no focus on attempting to grasp an understanding of the subject child’s account of events leading to the injuries.”

Zymere’s family had come into contact with the child welfare agency five times before his death.

Abuse by Mr. Smith was apparently common, according to the reports.

In July 2015, an anonymous caller said Mr. Smith had struck Zymere at a picnic least 20 times on his buttocks and legs for failing to listen and had threatened more when they returned home.

In August 2015, Zymere told investigators that Mr. Smith had put him in a cold shower nude to punish him, an allegation Mr. Smith acknowledged, according to the report.

In February 2016, Ms. Perkins told social workers that her son was “clumsy and fell a lot” in reply to allegations of a school employee concerned about several bruises, scratches near his eye and a missing tooth that appeared to have been knocked out.

Zymere and his mother contradicted each other under questioning about the injuries. At one point, Zymere explained his missing tooth by saying he had fallen in the snow and had to go to the dentist. His mother said he had a scooter accident that she attributed to his clumsiness.

Zymere repeatedly defended his mother and Mr. Smith to social workers. During one investigation, according to the report, Zymere “said he was not afraid of Mr. Smith and that Mr. Smith loved him.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: State Orders New York City to Hire Child Welfare Monitor. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe